When I walked into the Group of Racialized Ontario Women Litigators (GROWL) gathering, I saw a room filled with exceptional women — brilliant, accomplished, hardworking. Yet some carried themselves with hesitation, with gestures that seemed to apologize for occupying space. I recognized those gestures because I once carried them too, or occasionally, may still carry them.
If I could speak to the younger version of myself — the woman applying for law school from a women’s shelter, the mother told to give up school and become a janitor, the law student doubting her English — I would share three things to the younger me and anyone in this profession who feels unseen, underestimated, or unsure of their belonging.